Just reviewed a quiet but very solid deal in home services.
Not flashy. Not tech. But strong cash flow + real upside. ⢠The market: Residential roofing ⢠The target: High-end homeowners in the Bay Area Let me break it down š This business has been operating for 20+ years and built its reputation almost entirely on trust and referrals. No ads. No social. Mostly word of mouth. That alone tells you something. What do they actually do? Residential re-roofing, inspections, repairs, gutters, emergency work. ~50% of revenue comes from real estate inspections and repair jobs tied to home sales. That keeps work steady even when big projects slow. Client profile matters here. Homes are typically $1Mā$15M+. Customers care more about quality than price. This supports margins and repeat work. Now the numbers (this is where it gets interesting): ⢠Avg revenue (last 3 yrs): ~$2.1M ⢠Avg adjusted EBITDA: ~$400K+ ⢠Asking price: ~$1.5M ⢠Multiple: ~3.6x ⢠Projects/year: ~200 ⢠Avg ticket: $20Kā$100K This is not a volume game. Itās a premium service business. Team is another big plus: ~13 W2 employees Experienced roofers, long tenure No contractor chaos Payroll is clean, systems are simple Financially, the business is healthy: ⢠No supplier debt ⢠Net 0 terms with main vendors ⢠Customers pay 50% upfront, 50% on completion Cash flow discipline is strong. Why is the owner selling? Retirement. Owner is willing to stay 1ā2 years for transition, help with licensing, relationships, and handover. That lowers execution risk a lot. What I like as an analyst: ⢠Referral-driven demand ⢠Strong real estate agent relationships ⢠Premium customer base ⢠Survived 2008 + COVID ⢠No legal issues ⢠Clean books Where can it improve? ⢠Very old-school tech (Excel, PDFs, QuickBooks) ⢠No CRM, no estimating software ⢠No digital marketing at all ⢠Limited geography by choice ⢠No weekends (agents are active then) These are not problems ā theyāre levers. With a motivated operator, you could: ⢠Expand service area ⢠Add light commercial work